Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.

that was a neat cartoon. the message was there without judging any one faction or point of view, it was meant only to say with continuing wars all of mankind looses. oh, and if we are that foolish perhaps the world would be better without us. very interesting. also, imagine taking to heart the good intentions of religion without all the 'my god is better than your god' bs. yes, maxx i do believe that religion has some good intentions, we just screw it up sometimes.(ok, most of the time but...)

Excellent points, Patty!

thank you paul.

 Sorry to raise a dissenting voice, Patty, but even the pacifist SF writer Clifford Simak saw the flaw in this Disneyesque approach to life; I think you guys can still read his book 'CITY' and I suggest you do for many reasons ( Here, the local peaceniks and animal rights people buy up copies for 'snipping parties' whenever there's an edition published or avialable ).

df that was just my read on the cartoon. there are definitely things in this world worth fighting for. i have long thought that the end of most great civilizations and empires have had at least something to do with becoming so 'enlightened' that the people no longer have the will to fight viciously for their best interests. i see that with the united states now. we can't fight terrorists while simultainiously rebuilding the countries that harbor them. we also can't second guess soldiers in the front lines and charge them with murder for defending themselves. the fact that their will always be some against the war should not cause us to punish the troups for doing what we sent them to do. we either have to back them or bring them home. guilt or leftist agendas should not allow us to put our soldiers in the untenible position of hesitating out of fear of being judged wrong later and then dying from that hesitation. i fear we may loose our position in the world because we no longer ferociously protect ourselves from those who will be vicious in the persuit of their agendas. they feel threatened by our exsistence even when we leave them alone so therefore we must be dilligent in protecting ourselves. having power one refuses to use to protect ones self is worse than being out manned and out gunned because the underdog has the advantage of tremendous will. sorry so long but i love my country we are (mostly) brave, genrous, and kind. there are exceptions, but exceptions sort of define the rule don't you think? i'd love to know what you think of the above df, your opinions are interesting. anyone else too of course.

Gee, Patty, this must be the first time anyone has violently agreed with me:)

I must admit to feeling uncomfortable that someone who lives in a country with nuclear weapons has this mindset . . . Then again, I also live in a country where people are taught that if you have to use violence to keep something, then maybe it is not worth having in the first place; We do not, for example, have as clear-cut a definition of self-defense as even English law retains so many people have wound up in prison for killing a person who would obviously have raped or killed them.

(sigh) I find myself agreeign with Keanu's latest - Maybe the extermination of humanity is a good plan*. Even if it leaves me and a few others alone to bicker over the remains . . .



* And that is the first and last positive thing I will EVER say about that pile of celluloid offal that is his new film.

so the new 'the day the earth stood still' sucks i take it. and i don't want to nuke 'em i just want them to not blow up our buildings and kill our people. i turned on the tv in time to see the second plane hit the other tower on 9/11. i also heard guilliani's apeal to people not to jump from the upper floors. burning or jumping, not a good choice for people just going in to work one morning. we have the right to exsist, so do they but if it is them or us then i vehelently & unapologetically choose us. oh, and ohio just passed the castle law. if someone breaks into my house or threatens my family or property on my property i may use deadly force without fear of recriminations either criminal or civil. i highly approve.

This film represents that brief moment between when humans killed themselves off and the coyotes, wolves, and other predators came into Squirrelville and made dinner out of its peace-loving inhabitants.
"Wise Mr Owl" must have just finished eating or the 'young whippersnapper' asking the question about the Book would have been an appetizer.

Patty, form what I've seen and read, it apparently does, and I haven't got the money to make my own decision on it.

As for the 9/11 thing, well . . . I'm probably the only kiwi who doesn't respond with 'get over it!' whenever it's mentioned; But I can't help but be reminded by every Palestinian, Yugoslav and Chilean immigrant in this country that the whole incident was the oppressed peopels of the world defending *their* right to exist and not be killed by Americans and their actions. And they are using deadly force, so you must approve.

Castle law - Good name, considering 90% of all castles in Europe have been partly destroyed by wars that eventually beggared both combatants. But that's just an outsider's opinion of humanity

well, i guess i came off as a little blood thirsty. i'm really not, but war should be between combatants. there will always be some innocents killed in war, but making them targets on purpose is wrong. also my understanding was that we were targeted for how we choose to live over here. and much like the crusades, zealots decided those that believe or live differently must be destroyed. live and let live. if god could give us free will then you'd think we could afford it to eachother. oh well too bad everyone isn't as reasonable and intellegent as you and i friend.

Ah yes.. a good cartoon. Atrociously heavy-handed in the anti-war message, of course, but still, very nice. Startlingly violent for the times. Remember that this is before WWII started, and is shockingly violent for a 'peacetime' film. I mean, you have a mortally-wounded soldier drowning in a puddle... No way this would get shown to kids today.

Oh, and one other thing. It's a *beautiful* film from a technical standpoint.. I mean, look at the blowing snow, the backgrounds, everything.. it's *pretty*.

Bobcat, that's call "animation". Something these new cartoonists (Amine?) seem to have forgotten about.

Far from not judging any one faction or point of view, the cartoon promulgates the bible as "a mighty good book of rules", though it is noticeably very careful about which rules are shown on screen. Are there no other good "books of rules" to consider then? I think around 70% of the people on Earth might disagree.

I'm sure that most people could find good bits in the bible, just as there are good bits to be found in any religion, but I seriously doubt everyone would agree what exactly those good bits are. And the arguments over who is right invariably become just another cause of conflict.

As St. Bernard (he of the dog) is supposed to have said "Hell is full of good intentions," to which I would add "religion's as much as anyone else's."

Neither religion nor atheism, world government nor anarchy will stop people from fighting. We are just stupid that way.

Agreed... As the cartoon says: "No sooner would they finish one fight, then they'd find something *else* to fight about!"

Dumbfounded, thanks for bringing us another viewpoint to this discussion - The so-called "Star Trek Answer To The Fermi Paradox", that is, humans are such awful violent creatures no-one wnats to associate with us but in reality no-one wants to hang out with humans because they have such poor self-esteem about *being* awful violent creatures.

Actually, to correct you, over 90% of religions do in fact agree on the Ten Commandements in similar form - the only probelm is, they also all agree on the 'No God before me' bit to their respective diety. In fact all religions except some polytheistic and a couple of monotheistics ALL have The Golden Rule in one form or other, just whether they obey it or not is the problem.

I'm not as cynical as H. Beam Piper, who state dthat humanity was basically ungovernable; But I agree that many of us are as you say stupid. The stupid are not hwever the probelm; Stupid people can be taught, the ignorant who willingly stick to their ignorance are the difficult ones. Are you willing to have your mind chnaged, Dumbfounded?

Expat47, modern Anime ( Amine is an ammonia-based chemical from which amino acids and thus proteins are formed ) is actaully just as good as this, if not better; do NOT judge the art from TV series as they have once again turned to stylised grindhouse jobs, like 1970s Hannah Barbera series. Films like HOWL's MOVING CASTLE, VEXILLE, SPIRITED AWAY, PAPRIKA and others show how artistic anime atill is, and even some Japanes shows still take the time to put massive deatil into their work - "Paranoia Agent" is a perfect example of that last.

Judging all anime by such shows as say YIN YANG YO or SAMURAI JACK is like judging all modern science fiction by Metahead Reeves latest, or all modern drama by the latest Days Of Our Lives plotline.

"Actually, to correct you, over 90% of religions do in fact agree on the Ten Commandements in similar form"

Not that I mentioned a "% of religions" - or the ten commandments - for you to correct, but would you care to provide a bit of backing for that dubious claim?

"Are you willing to have your mind chnaged, Dumbfounded?"

Sure... all it takes is reliable, repeatable, demonstrable evidence. Bare assertions need not apply.

"Something these new cartoonists (Anime?) seem to have forgotten about."

Steamboy.

dumbfounded whether you are christian or another religion or athiest or agnostic; don't kill, don't steal, don't be overly jealous of what others have or who they are with are all good
rules. at that time seeing christianity represented in what i presume is an american cartoon isn't all that suprising. what i meant is the cartoonists in question didn't seem to show a particular country or people as the cause of humanity's demise. even before ww2 one might expect to see germany demonized in such a cartoon but in fact no nationality was represented as either good or bad. is there really a religion that disagrees with the general ideas of the ten commandments? i thought religion was peaceful and loving and mankind used it as an excuse for violence, you know good ideas badly used.(like nuclear fission as a renewable power source or bombs)